The present invention relates to a circular knitting machine for producing stockings and the like with a protective screen in the processing area.
Circular machines are known for producing stockings with protective screens in the processing zone to prevent oil, employed for the lubrication of the various devices acting on the needle-bearing cylinder and on the other elements of the machine in this region, from being spewed out of the machine onto the operators or the surrounding environment.
Generally these protection screens are composed of walls, arranged around the needle-bearing cylinder, which are higher than the needle-bearing cylinder and can be removed to allow the operator to gain access to the various elements. These walls are in transparent material, in order to allow the operator to monitor the operation of the elements of the machine in the processing region and are supported by an oil-collecting tray.
With progress in the field of circular machines for stockings with a rotating cylinder, since the speed of rotation of the cylinder is ever increasing, these known kinds of protective screen have given rise to some disadvantages.
The high speeds of the cylinder, as well as the high intervention speeds, require ever-increasing amounts of oil, which acts both as lubricant and coolant; conversely, since the centrifugal effect is ever-increasing, a great quantity of oil is spewed out from the machine and, very often, the side walls cannot offer adequate protection.
Another disadvantage is due to the noise levels of the machines during processing; in fact, the lateral walls cannot attenuate any noise, with the consequent discomfort of the operators working proximate to the machine. This problem is all the more important as the number of machines in the same room increases.